Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Woman in Black stars Daneil Radcliffe in a nice little creepy ghost story. I blame it on all the old dolls. It should be making its way into theatres in February 2012. What do you think? Going to put it in your to be Seen List?

Friday, November 25, 2011

October "Toby" Daye is a changeling, the daughter of Amandine of the fae and a mortal man. Like her mother, she is gifted in blood magic, able to read what has happened to a person through a mere taste of blood.

Half-human, half-fae, outsiders from birth, most changelings are second-class children of Faerie spending their lives fighting for the respect of their immortal relations. Toby is the only changeling who has earned knighthood, and she re-earns that position every day, undertaking assignments for her liege, Sylvester, the Duke of Shadowed Hills.

Now Sylvester has asked her to go to the County of Tamed Lightning—otherwise known as Fremont, California—to make sure that all is well with his niece, January O'Leary, whom he has not been able to contact. It seems like a simple enough assignment—but when dealing with the realm of Faerie, nothing is ever as simple as it seems. January runs a company that produces computer fantasy games, and her domain is a buffer between Sylvester's lands and a rival duchy whose ruler is looking for an opportunity to seize control. And that's the least of January's problems. For Tamed Lightning has somehow been cut off from the other fiefdoms, and now someone has begun to murder January's key people. If Toby can't find and stop the killer soon, she may well become the next victim...

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Most people know that I am a sucker for everything fae. Maybe I just wanted to be a fairy princess when I was younger. Maybe I still do. Like I have said before I think it is largely due to my parents reading me and telling me stories of the Tuatha, of faerie lore and then Tinkerbell. Authors like Melissa Marr, Holly Black, Neil Gaiman, Charles de Lint, and Emma Bull make a girl like me happy. I love the political intrigue between the Courts. I like the myths and legends of the tales I was told when I was a child. Sadly though I have picked up Rosemary and Rue in the bookstore, I never picked it up and bought it. So when the Borders closed and I got my 80 book pile of goodies, I got Book Two and Three of Toby’s stories. I know, I know I suck for starting at the sequel rather than at the beginning. But hey, I really liked A Local Habitation, so am picking up the first one so all of my gaps of knowledge are no longer missing before I read An Artificial Night.

A Local Habitation begins half a year after Rosemary and Rue ends. October “Toby” Daye is relaxing and enjoying herself for once by hanging out with a few of her friends and imbibing far too much alcohol. One drunk Changeling. Check. See the lovely excerpt below to see how great Toby’s entrance is. So while Tybalt carries her home and she falls into a drunken stupor of sleep, she wakes up to find her vacation short lived when Sylvester Torquil, her liege lord, asks her to go and check on his niece January. Oh and Quentin, a foster of the Court gets to tag along. Simple job right? Except that when they get to January’s office, it becomes clear that everything is not all right. People are dying and dying in ways that even Toby cannot see with her blood magic. And the Night Haunts are not taking care of the bodies. A bit disturbing. It’s only a matter of time before someone else dies and it just might be Toby.

Excerpt: Several pixies had congregated around a corner store’s front-porch bug zapper, using toothpicks as skewers for roasting a variety of insects. I stopped to watch them, taking the pause as an opportunity to get my balance back. One of them saw me looking and flitted over to hover in front of my nose, scowling.

“S’okay,” I informed it, with drunken solemnity. “I can see you.” It continued to hang there, expression turning even angrier. “No, really, it’s okay. I’m Dao…Dao…I’m a changeling.” Whoever was responsible for naming the fae races should really have put more thought into making them pronounceable when drunk. It jabbed the toothpick in my direction. I blinked, perplexed.

“No, it’s okay. I don’t want any of your moth.”

“He’s offering to stab you, not feed you. I suppose the difference is trivial, but still, one assumes you’d want to avoid finding that out first-hand.” The voice behind me was smooth as cream and aristocratically amused. The pixie backpedaled in mid-air, nearly dropping his toothpick as he went racing back to the flock. They were gone in seconds, leaving nothing but faint trails of shimmering dust in the air.

“Hey!” I turned, crossing my arms and glaring. “I was talking to him!”

Tybalt eyed me with amusement, which just made me glare harder. “No, you were inciting him to stab you with a toothpick. Again, the difference is small, but I think it matters.”

My glare faded into bewilderment. “Why was he gonna stab me? I was just saying hi. And he came over here first. I wasn’t saying anything before he came over.”

“Finally, a sensible question.” Tybalt reached out to brush my hair back behind one ear, tapping it with the side of his thumb. “Round ears, blue eyes, smell of magic buried under the smell of alcohol…it’s the perfect disguise. Well done. Although it doesn’t suit you.”

“Oh!” I blinked, reddening. “Oops.” Then I frowned. “What do you mean, it doesn’t suit me? I like this skirt!”

Tybalt pulled his hand away, stepping back to study me. I returned the favor, looking him up and down.

As the local King of Cats and the most powerful Cait Sidhe in San Francisco, Tybalt rarely bothers to go anywhere that requires him to wear a human disguise. As far as I can tell, it’s not that he feels it’s beneath him; it’s just that he doesn’t care enough about the human side of the city to bother interacting with them. This was one of the few times I’d seen him passing for human, and he wore it well. Tall, lean, and angular, he held himself with a predatory air that would translate into feline grace when he moved. His dark brown hair was short, curly, and banded with streaks of black that mimicked the stripes on a tabby’s coat. The human illusion he wore concealed his sharpened incisors, pointed ears, and cat-slit pupils, but left his simple masculinity a little more noticeable than I liked. I tore my eyes away.

Saying that Tybalt and I have a complex relationship would be understating things just a tad. I endure his taunting because it’s easier than having my intestines removed by an angry Cait Sidhe. On top of all that, I owe him for services rendered following the murder of Evening Winterrose. Sadly, my being in debt to him encourages him to prod at me even more frequently. It’s getting to be a habit.

“The skirt passes muster,” said Tybalt, finishing his survey. “I might have called it a ‘belt’ rather than a ‘skirt,’ but I suppose you have the right to name your own clothing. While we’re on the subject of apparel, tell me, were you intending to walk all the way home in those shoes?”

“Maybe,” I hedged. The straps were starting to chafe my ankles, making walking even less comfortable than it had been to begin with, but he didn’t need to know that.

Tybalt snorted. I glanced up to see him looking decidedly amused, shaking his head slowly from side to side. “Indeed. I don’t suppose you’d consider taking a taxi?”

“There aren’t any,” I said, feeling as if I’d won a battle with that stunning point of logic.

“Did you consider phoning for one? I understand they can be summoned.”

“Didn’t have a phone.”

“I see,” said Tybalt. “Well, as there are no taxis, and you have splendid reasons not to summon a taxi, and you are, in fact, drunk enough to be making comments about the tightness of my trousers, I believe it would be a good idea for me to escort you home.”

“I don’t need you to.”

“That’s nice,” said Tybalt, shrugging out of his jacket and draping it around my shoulders. “You look cold.”

“I’m not cold.” That was a lie—it was a nice night, but even the nicest night gets chilly after midnight in San Francisco. I pulled the jacket tight, trying to preserve the illusion of dignity. The leather smelled of Tybalt’s magic, all pennyroyal and musk. “I can get home just fine.”

“Of course you can,” Tybalt agreed, planting a hand on the small of my back and urging me to begin walking. “You are, after all, a perfectly reasonable, competent woman. It’s just that at the moment, you’re so drunk you can’t remember whether or not you’re wearing your own face, and I would really rather not scrape you off the sidewalk.”

His hand was a firm, insistent pressure. I began to walk, steadier now that I had something to lean against. “Nah, no sidewalk-scraping. You’d find me in an alley somewhere.”

Things I loved: I enjoyed McGuire’s writing style. I liked that she didn’t over describe settings and lets her reader fill in the blanks. I loved that each character was distinct which doesn’t happen a whole lot. April had her own style of dialogue as did Toby or even Quentin. This book was fast paced, fun and interesting and even though I did begin with Book Two I never felt lost. I just had gaps to fill and a bit more questions than those who had started at the beginning. In terms of plot, as someone who reads a lot of mysteries and watches equal amounts of said mysteries and thrillers, it wasn’t hard to figure out some of the plotting such as Alex and Terrie or even who the eventual killer was. And yet even though I figured out some of the plot twists and turns, I had fun doing it. Just because I had solved it, or thought I had solved it, I didn’t stop reading. It’s a great little ‘locked door’ mystery. There was a nice balance of action, mystery, character development, world building, etc. And as I said the pacing was nice.

I really like Toby. She’s a heroine that yes is a PI/Knight and that definitely has her fair share of snarky comments, is fairly normal. There are quite a few scenes in the book where we really get to see her vulnerability. She is not some overpowered changeling. She has the power to see how someone died through their blood. Blood magic isn’t really that high on the Fae power hierarchy. She is aware and understands her limitations, being both a Changeling and not being as powerful as her mother as a Blood Rider. But as I said she’s pretty normal. The fact that she didn’t immediately connect the dots on some things was frustrating, but it happens. It’s like solving the CSI murder before they all do and then wanting to know why they didn’t figure it out as quickly as you did. And I said, she has flaws, one big one…falling for and continuing to have a relationship with a married man. I enjoy these flaws though. I enjoy her relationship with Luidaeg, her guilt over Dare’s death (even though I don’t know who this Dare is quite yet), her relationship with Quentin, and how Toby will do anything to protect those she cares about. She is a great heroine that I look forward to reading more about.

I loved the pronunciation guide. As a Celt it bugs me when things are mispronounced. So it is great that she is letting people know how to pronounce things. Yeah. Now people can understand why Bainsidhe is pronounced Banshee. Shiny gold star McGuire.

Things I didn't love so much: While I like Tybalt, he reminds me far too much of Curran from the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews. There was even a ‘here kitty, kitty’ moment. So I guess instead of werewolves, we have werekitties being the go to shapeshifter species, although yes Tybalt is a Cait Sdhe, but you have to admit Curran and Kate have a lot in common with Tybalt and Toby. And also in my head Tybalt looks like John Leguizamo from Romeo + Juliet. I blame this largely on the name. I do like him though. And I love the interaction between Toby and the King of Cats even if it is a bit familiar. I will say that the way she describes cats is great whether they are faeries cats or not.

Admittedly I am a bit lost. Toby has a daughter? She was a fish for 14 years? How does she know Connor? So what’s the deal with Sylvester’s daughter? Etc, etc. This is largely due to my own fault for not picking up book one. Though I would think that there might be more mention or exploration with Toby and her daughter considering he circumstances with April and January. This would have been a great way to really develop that side. By the way loved April even though she reminded me of the creepy little girl hologram from Resident Evil.

Buy or Borrow: Buy. But don’t start at the 2nd book like I did.

Part of: A series. Book One: Rosemary and Rue Book Two: A Local Habitation Book Three: An Artificial Night Book Four: Late EclipsesBook Five: One Salt Sea

Also Recommended: Seanan McGuire also writes under the pen name of Mira Grant whose zombie apocalypse trilogy is one I cannot wait to read. For more Fae fun I would recommend Holly Blacks Modern Faerie Tale series as well as the series by Melissa Marr. War for the Oaks by Emma Bull is a fave and amittedly I do have a soft spot for Laurell K Hamilton's Merry Gentry series.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

HOLIDAY FAMILY PART TWO: Happy Turkey Day everyone. Day of gorging yourself with delicious food, watching the game, falling into food coma and then stupidly getting up 5 hours later in pitch black to go wait in line for 4 hours to get a cheap deal on electronics. Or in my case having dinner with my roomies family, then watching the game, falling into a food coma, playing some video games and then waking up not as early as those other schmoes but still early enough and buying things. Anyway, yesterday we had the regular version of your new family for Thanksgiving. This week, it is the family of film and fiction. Have fun. Please share and I will post your link to your answer. Thought I would mix it up and add some more crazy choices today. The Holidays aren’t fun until you have

1. Grandmother: Granny Weatherwax from the Discworld Novels She’s a witch, is prone to occasionally put up signs that read ‘not dead, just resting’. On top of that she reminds me of my granny June. She takes no prisoners, would tell me bad and dirty jokes, would let me just be me no matter what and tell some of the best stories ever.

2. Grandfather: Gandalf the Grey I shouldn’t have to explain this too much. He’s Gandalf. He smokes, drinks, tells jokes and has the best fireworks ever. And oh yeah one of the coolest wizards ever. Plus summers with Grandpa would be amazing in Middle Earth.

3. Father: Mr. Pendergrass from Easy A If you have seen this movie (which you should) you can understand why Stanley Tucci’s father figure would be awesome except for the part where we would have to watch the Bucket List. He would embrace if not encourage my quirkiness and is just cool. 4. Mother: Mrs. Pendergrass from Easy A Also kind of a logical choice if you’ve seen the movie. You can’t have Stanley Tucci without Patricia Clarkson. Awesome parents. I imagine that I would also be as adorable as Olive is. And yet geekier. Plus she would share with you, possibly things about her misspent youth, but hey we’d have mother/daughter share time.

5. Big Brother: Macgyver Cause after we cut his mullet off because it was not an awesome hair choice, Mac would be great. If the oven broke down before the turkey was done, all we would need is a paperclip, some shampoo, a match and some dryer flint and voila. Turkey dinner.

6. Big Sister: Lorelai Gilmore I wasn’t a hard core Gilmore Girls fan, but I watched enough that she would make an awesome big sister. A bit crazy, but balanced because of her cool factor. Slumber parties, spa days, gossip sessions and anything involving boys would be awesome.

7. Little Brother: Tom Imura from Rot N Ruin Because when the zombie apocalypse happens, it will be nice to have him as a little brother and who will ultimately save me or cut off my head really quickly if things go bad. Not sure why zombies might show up at Thanksgiving dinner, but you never know.

8. Little Sister: Lily from How I Met Your Mother I wasn’t a hard core Gilmore Girls fan, but I watched enough that she would make an awesome big sister. A bit crazy, but balanced because of her cool factor. Slumber parties, spa days, gossip sessions and anything involving boys would be awesome.

9. Uncle: Indiana Jones > Cause he would take me on adventures. And also possibly get me killed while on said adventures. Fun times.

10. Aunt: Inara Sera from Firefly Not only would having the birds and bees conversation go over so much better, but Inara would have the best stories. Plus she’d make me feel all girly girl. Awesome Aunt. 10. The Uncle who is not really An Uncle: Hardison from Leverage One: Cause then I would inadvertently meet the rest of the crew. Two: Which means I get to hang with Parker. Yeah. Three: Having the coolest geeky hacker ever would mean great things. Admit it. I would love ‘Uncle’ Hardison to pieces.

11. Date: The 10th Doctor Allons-y. We would saunter in after a delightful trip from whenever and wherever. I would be an awesome companion. Plus he would be all David Tennant shaped and that doesn’t suck Plus there is always the snogging under the mistletoe later.

Chris Hardwick There is something about Chris Hardwick that makes my girly geek all warm and fuzzy. For those of you who are Doctor Who fans or Walking Dead fans, Chris Hardwick is kind of a big geek about both of them. Yes he hosts shows about both of them, but you know at the core he really is a giant fanboy. And a fangirl such as myself cannot help but find that attractive. Also he isn’t bad on the eyes.

I first remember seeing him when he hosted MTV’s Singled Out. He was adorable funny and just a little bit of a nerd. Then of course there was Web Soup on G4, his commentary on the I Love the… on VH1 and of course seeing him in shows like CSI or movies like Halloween 2. As a fan of Wired Magazine I have read a few of his articles as well. Last year he re-entered Smirking’s radar when he was on Craig Ferguson for Craig’s Doctor Who special and I genuinely discovered how much of an adorable little geek he was. Then he started appearing on shows about Doctor Who and zombies. Of course now I love him on the Talking Dead talk show which airs after the Walking Dead every Sunday.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

WEDNESDAY WHAT IFS: Tis the season for turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pecan pie and of course spending time with your family. If yours is anything like mine Thanksgiving can sometimes be mundane and then other times a bit crazy. Now I am lucky I have both my blood family and the family I wasn’t born with (also known as the one you make which is just as important, sometimes more so). But what if we could choose our family from our little geeky imaginations? This week we will deal with real people. Tomorrow we will create a family from our own little geeky universes. Please share and I will post your link to your answer.

1. Grandmother: Helen MirrenI have such respect for this woman. She is an amazing actress, is witty, intelligent, and would be one of those grandmothers that you would completely bond with and be unafraid to be a bit geeky, a bit snarky and yet she would be one of those grandmothers you would just adore to pieces.

2. Grandfather: Wilford BrimleyThe man has a history on top of the whole diabetes thing we are really going to remember him for. He was a bodyguard for Howard Hughes, was an actor, a famer, a blacksmith and even used to ride in the rodeo. Think about the stories you would hear. Plus he played an awesome father figure on television.

3. Big Brother: Joss Whedon Granted growing up with him would mean a good healthy dose of sibling rivalry, but he would be the geeky totally cool brother who would introduce me to comics, make me feel empowered as much as I might get noogies and keep the laughter coming when it came to the holidays. But I would totally smoke him during a snowball fight.

4. Big Sister: Janeane Garafalo Growing up she would make you laugh as much as she would make you think. Its why I heart her. Dinner table conversations would never be boring. Plus she is adorable. I imagine many interesting people would hang with her and therefore I would spy and lamely try to be part of the group as all little sisters would do.

5. Little Brother: Neil Patrick Harris I really don’t have to explain this choice at all do I? He’s the man. Coolest little brother ever.

6. Little Sister: Emma Stone She has such an amazing personality on screen, from Easy A to Crazy Stupid Love. Slumber parties, shopping outings, and geek out girly days would be amazing with her as a little sister.

7. Uncle: Neil Gaiman How cool would the holidays be? He would tell great stories, be able to scare and make you laugh as much as he would make you smile and make you completely excitable. He has a great taste in music and also I need at least one awesome bibliophile as my family member.

8. Aunt: Cate Blanchett She is just awesome in all ways. I have a girly crush on her and she would be the favorite aunt I would hang out with all the time. She also has a great fashion sense. Maybe I would get all of the stuff she didn’t want anymore.

9. The Uncle who is not really the Uncle: Nathan Fillion There is always the family member who really isn’t blood tied to you, but you still call him Uncle. Nathan would be perfect. He’s hilarious, would obviously get along quite well with my older brother and someone I could relate to. He might also make the turkey do a little dance.

10. Date: Ryan Reynolds One: He’s adorable. Two: He is sweet, self-deprecating and extremely funny and talented. Three: He’s tall which means I could wear those kitten heels and not feel like Nicole Kidman did with Tom Cruise. Four: There’s that whole snogging under the mistletoe thing.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

When chaos erupts in the small coastal town of Hawthorne, Massachusetts, former vampire-turned-mage Peter Octavian and earthwitch Keomany Shaw arrive to investigate. Years ago, Octavian helped expose the secret existence of vampires to the world, dismantling the Vatican's sorcery corps in order to save his fellow shadows from destruction. But without the Vatican sorcerers, the magical barriers they spent centuries constructing to keep the forces of darkness out of our world are beginning to fail, and things are slipping through. Now an ancient god of chaos is awakening in Hawthorne, its influence spreading...and it's Octavian's fault. If he can't stop it, the blood of all human kind will be on his hands.

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I have been reading Christopher Golden since I was in college mostly due to his Buffy books. I enjoyed his stuff so much that I began to read more: The Shadow Saga, The Menagerie, The Lost Cities novels and more. I was excited to see another Shadow book although they are now making them Peter Octavian books rather than continuing the Shadow saga as Peter is no longer a vampire as he once was which is fine as it is still set in the same world. What I liked about the Shadow saga was the take on vampires, the role the Catholic church played in not only keeping the shadows in check but keeping them relegated to legends and myth. Such was the Church’s power that it made the shadows be afraid of sunlight, limited the forms that they could take, flight, etc. Great mythos. Now that the Church has been weakened due to their part in the events that took place in the previous books, our world is not as safe as it once was. While the Church did a lot of unthinkable things to the Shadows, they also helped keep the other realms out of ours.

This is the fifth book in The Shadow Saga though it is now the Peter Octavian novels. Peter Octavian, Byzantium Prince and former vampire, has been contacted by an old friend whose girlfriend’s brother is lost in a coma and has plants growing throughout his body, very specific plants. Though he is no longer a shadow Octavian also spent 1000 years in Hell and picked up a few tricks as a sorcerer. Add on the experience (give another thousand years) as a shadow and Peter might be able to help. But long forgotten wood gods are the least of his worries. Keomany Shaw, earth witch and friend has sensed a terrible disturbance from Hawthorne, Massachusetts. Something is wrong. Terribly wrong.

It began with the discovery of an old box from the depths of the ocean and a young college girl named Amber’s prophetic dreams and seizures. Something has been awakened and chaos will come with it. Birds attack, mysterious wraiths prowl around the town, and Hawthorne’s residents have begun to give into their most primal desires and feelings. Peter is going to need help if he wants to save Amber and her town, so along with Keomany and a shadow named Charlotte they do what they do best and that’s fight until you can’t.

Things I loved: The last book of the Shadow Saga was a tough act to follow. It was the end of the Church. It was also The Final Death for a lot of characters you had grown attached to over the series and in a way could have been the end for the series as a whole. But then it wasn’t. It was really great to see earth witch Keomany returning to the fold as well as Octavian himself. Octavian is such a fun character and we have seen him go through a lot. First as a shadow and now as a human sorcerer, a really powerful sorcerer. But even with his Thor like awesomeness, there are things that are bigger and badder than he is. One great thing about these books as I felt like we have come to a new chapter. The first four books were all about the Shadows, The Church and Peter’s journey to who he is now and trying to help his kind. But now we are seeing the fallout from all of those events and decisions and the realization that there are worse things out there than Shadows like Hannibal. Luckily we have Peter Octavian on humanity’s side. Not a bad guy to have. It’s a nice way to continue the series and bring new life into it.

Loved the opening. The opening act involves a flora/wood goddess who has taken over a house as well as its occupants. Awesome. I loved the whole marijuana plants growing where they should not be. Descriptions that were quite lovely and yet horrific = check. Reintroducing us to the badass that Octavian is = also check. Okay I was hooked. From here we head to Hawthrone where the shit-eth hath hit-eth the fan-eth. Seizures, blue lightning, carapace wraiths, strange boxes, chaos filling the streets and one hell of a pissed off goddess. It’s all good times.

Octavian lost a lot of allies in the last book. I can see Golden trying to give Octavian some new ones. I totally dig Charlotte even though all I can see is the red headed chick from the Twilight movies in my head. And this book also had some unexpected twists and turns. Golden, like Joss Whedon or even Robert Kirkman makes you remember that absolutely no one is safe. Hell of an ending and I cannot wait to see more of Cortez and the plans he has in store.

Things I didn't love so much: I cannot quite put my finger on what was missing, but I felt like there was something that didn’t quite work. Maybe it was partly due to the fact that I haven’t read anything with Peter Octavian since …. Came out. Not sure. But there was something that didn’t make me run out to my friends and tell them, you have to read this. I will say that this is not for new readers. I will agree that he doesn’t give you a lot of back story. He doesn’t explain a hell of a lot because well this is the fifth book so for new readers you will not get a whole lot of character development. And yet at the same time as I said before, this really feels like a new chapter in the scheme of things. You just might be confused a lot. Okay yeah a whole lot. Definitely not recommended for anyone new to the Shadow world and Peter Octavian as a whole.

A fellow reviewer had made a comment that Peter was just another PI in a world of John Taylors, Harry Dresdens and more. Understandable that most urban fantasy heroes and heroines are investigators of some sort which sadly makes sense. How are else are we supposed to have the monster of the week. Sadly the paranormal would be less likely to happen if you had a cubicle job or was a retail flunkie. You kind of need a job where there is mystery and exposure to a lot of different things. So while yes, in a way it can be a bit annoying for everyone to be in the same profession you kind of need them to be. Though admittedly it would be funny to have a desk jockey be the one who all the crazy stuff happens to.

Buy or Borrow: Buy if you are a completist like me. Borrow if you have not read the rest of the Shadow saga.

Part of: A series. Book One: Of Saints and Shadows Book Two: Angel Souls and Devil Hearts Book Three: Of Masques and Martyrs Book Four: The Gathering Dark Book Five: Waking Nightmares

Also Recommended: I really enjoy Golden’s Menagerie series which seemed to end just as it started getting good. For more vampire mayhem there are the lovely Books of Blood by Tanya Huff, for more magical fun I would recommend the Matthew Swift series by Kate Griffin and if you are looking for more Golden action there are always his past Buffy books.